The Prime Minister of Republic of Bulgaria Mr.Sergey Stanishev made the first move

Veselin Topalov, having the White pieces, drew against Gata Kamsky the 1st game of the Chess Challenge match. The opponents agreed to draw on move 36. The Prime Minister of Republic of Bulgaria Mr.Sergey Stanishev made the first move, the Bulgarian President Mr.Georgy Parvanov was there as well as a special guest.

The first game was extremely double-edged. Initially, the ex-World Champion Veselin Topalov had the initiative for a long period of time but the American GM Gata Kamsky, who also could aspire for the win at some moment, found a way to force the draw result. 'I played a new move that creates problems for Black. During the game I thought that I have dangerous initiative but perhaps did not find the best move order. It looked as if every my piece is attacking at the King but I thought a lot in a complex position and could not find a decisive continuation.' said Veselin Topalov

This is how Gata Kamsky commented on the 1st game of the match: 'A lot of pieces were exchanged and that logically lead to draw. The match is going on, so I do not think we should discuss the opening. I spent a lot of time on move 17 as I faced a novelty.' To the question of the Russian journalist Yury Vasiliev from 'Sport-Express' if this game was repeating the one Cheparinov - Kamsky from the Sochi tournament, Gata answered: 'No, here White played 17.e5 and the game took totally different turn.'